Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck is a very rare game: it has mostly mediocre minigames, and yet is one of the most compelling games released this year. It absolutely triumphs in most aspects not related to gameplay and a few that are; most notably-- and this isn't the boldest thing I'll say in this review-- it is the best Looney Tunes material created in any of our lifetimes. It completely redeems a license and character that have fallen into obsolescence. Forget that Back in Action ever happened. (Sorry if I reminded you that Back in Action happened.) This is a Daffy who can genuinely get away with a Captain Picard reference.
The concept of the game mirrors the 1951 cartoon of the same name, in which Daffy Duck, thinking he's going to star in a cartoon, is instead tormented by an omnipotent animator who changes the background, the perspective, and Daffy's appearance just because. This time, Daffy begins a Super Mario Bros. style game before the background abruptly disappears and Daffy, finding himself in a familiar white void, addresses the person on the other side of the screen. He hopes to help nail down what kind of game he'll be in; instead, he is maliciously put through the wringer over and over again. Daffy's appearance and animations are absolutely perfect; the characterization is classic Daffy: even as he is increasingly enraged, he remains naively game about his big break.
Many of the 20-odd games are extraordinarily clever in gameplay or in concept. For example, the closed-DS game is maybe the most innovative minigame found on the DS to date: Daffy directs you to press the L or R trigger to help him trap a monster under the cover of darkness. Another game, called "Diamond Mine! Mine!" imitates Atari 2600-era games like Adventure, casting the player as a diamond escaping from a cave while being chased by a greedy Daffy. There are parodies of recent games, including one strange game that manages to parody both Brain Age and Cooking Mama. But while clever, the games quickly stop holding any interest after you figure out how to play them. The lifespan of one of these games is generally as follows: play once, laugh, fail, figure out trick, play again, excel, forget about game forever.
Final Score: 8/10
_thumbnail.jpg "Mega Man Star Force 2")
_thumbnail.jpg "Rune Factory 2")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-18-2007 @ 6:51PM
Xian B. said...
Thanks for the review. I'm still torn. I love Warner Bros cartoons, and Duck Amuck really is a classic, but anybody of my generation who is familiar with this cartoon will probably be too old for such shallow gameplay. I don't know, I don't know...
Reply
10-18-2007 @ 7:18PM
JC Fletcher said...
If you can GameFly it or something, you should absolutely play it. I think everyone needs to at least play it for a couple of hours.
Reply
10-18-2007 @ 7:44PM
Mr Khan said...
Being 18, i am old enough to remember when the Turner Networks had nothing better to show than old Warner Bros Cartoons
There are a lot of idiots out there in the network TV business, nowhere is any of this stuff, except once in a blue moon on Turner Classic Movies and on Boomerang which is a Pay channel no matter what cable package you have
feh
Reply
10-18-2007 @ 7:47PM
JC Fletcher said...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb_AWKru3F0
Reply
10-18-2007 @ 10:28PM
Nick said...
I wanted to love this game as much as you did, but I found "shallow" to not even come close to describing how lacking the gameplay is. I find the mini-games, ESPECIALLY the one where you cut Daffy in half, to not have really been tested.
It's nice that they really try to cater to the people who actually saw the original cartoon. But to pay that price for a game that offers nothing other than annoying mini-games to get new cut screens, no thank you.
The sound is horrific and the cuts in-between scenes remind me of how annoyed I was with Raving Rabbids on the Wii. It's unpolished, jerky and there's no smooth transition. It's like when you're watching an older lower quality toon, and you can see objects and say without question "Oh, that tree is going to be moved".
I loved the original cartoon, I can't count the number of times I saw it in my childhood years and repeated over and over. There are some things that are really funny, but as funny as they may be and as GOOD of a job they did in the animation - it's not worth the price of admission. IGN gave it a 6 and I thought they were crazy, then I played it. I "Finished" it in less than an hour. I know there are a ton more mini-games, and probably a slew more endings, but ugh.
I like some parts of it, but after going through it one time and suffering the mini games... eh. I don't know if I'll do it again.
Guess each person has a different opinion!
Reply
10-18-2007 @ 11:54PM
CPFace said...
I've played this game start to finish at least once a day since I picked it up last Saturday, and I'm still not sick of it because I'm a pervert.
Personally, I think this game turned out to be everything it should be. It has the replay value of a good cartoon with the added bonus of variability -- you have the ability to direct the outcome, but you can also just sit back and let Daffy dig his own grave by triggering seemingly random events. His personality sparkles -- I must have seen every cutscene that the game offers several times over, but the game still hasn't broken the illusion that Daffy Duck is in my DS and interacting with me in real time.
I put the minigames in the same league as the ones in Feel the Magic and Cooking Mama -- exactly good enough to support the premise, and no better. I don't think the point of them is -- or even should be -- to provide an intense video game experience. The best ones are simply about acting out the things that happen in cartoons. The cooking game, for example, instantly reminded me of those cartoon scenes where the hero is sitting in a pot while a villainous predator (like the Tasmanian Devil) gleefully chops vegetables into it. It's not difficult, and it doesn't have to be; it just gives you a chance to act out a classic cartoon moment. Nothing more, nothing less.
It's a one-of-a-kind sort of game. For me, that was all the reason I needed to buy it. I can understand why most folks would disagree with me, but I still say that everyone should get a chance to try this game out.
Reply
10-19-2007 @ 12:15AM
Xian B. said...
So Nick nudges me one way, then BAM, along comes CPFace to put some CP (Critical Praise) in my Face.
You guys suck. Make up your minds! :P
It sounds like IGN hit the mark when they said "Ultimately Duck Amuck succeeds more as an interactive cartoon than it does as a mini-game collection." But they gave it only a 6 out of 10. Maybe I'll pick it up when it gets discounted, and even then I'll have to remember that I'm buying an "interactive cartoon."
Reply
10-19-2007 @ 12:56AM
Pie Pants said...
I tried this game, but I think I'd be too generous if I even gave it a 5 or 6 out of 10. I thought it was a great concept, and got a laugh when I closed the DS, but other than that, it just falls flat in every aspect other than the presentation.
And presentation just doesn't make a good game for me, I'm afraid.
Reply
10-19-2007 @ 10:11AM
CPFace said...
I don't want to convince you into a purchase that you'll regret, so I'll say that I basically agree with everyone else's comments -- it's a shallow gameplay experience, and you're probably better off renting or borrowing. It takes a very particular sort of person to take satisfaction in getting a game like this for $30, and, well, I just happen to be one of those people. I also got a kick out of Pokemon Channel, if that tells you anything. ;)
Reply